Blaby vs Leicester

Blaby records less crime for its size than Leicester: 68.8 offences per 1,000 residents in the 12 months to June 2026, against 122.5. That is about 78% more. Both figures are averages across a whole local authority, and neither area is uniform: the gap between neighbourhoods inside one of these places is usually wider than the gap between the two of them.

Blaby 68.8 crimes per 1,000 residents, Leicestershire
Leicester 122.5 crimes per 1,000 residents, Leicestershire

The England and Wales average is 91.2 recorded crimes per 1,000 residents. Blaby is about 25% below it. Leicester is about 34% above it.

Side by side

Recorded crime in Blaby and Leicester
  Blaby Leicester
Crimes per 1,000 residents 68.8 122.5
Offences in the year to June 2026 7,440 47,586
Residents 108,165 388,348
Change on the previous 12 months -0.1% -6.4%
Rank in England and Wales 228 of 314 47 of 314

Rank 1 is the highest recorded rate. Both areas are local authority areas, so the two populations are counted the same way and the rates are directly comparable.

Offence by offence

The mix differs more than the totals do. Leicester records about 4.7 times as much drugs, 2.5 times as much public order and 1.9 times as much criminal damage and arson per resident.

Rate per 1,000 residents by offence
Offence, per 1,000 residents Blaby Leicester
Violence and sexual offences 24.5 43.7
Anti-social behaviour 10.3 16.7
Public order 5.0 12.6
Criminal damage and arson 5.9 11.1
Shoplifting 7.2 8.7
Other theft 4.4 7.7
Vehicle crime 3.9 5.8
Drugs 1.0 4.7
Burglary 3.1 4.0
Other crime 2.1 2.0
Bicycle theft 0.3 1.6
Robbery 0.4 1.5
Theft from the person 0.4 1.3
Possession of weapons 0.3 1.2
All recorded crime 68.8 122.5

Both places since 2011

Each line is a rolling twelve-month rate per 1,000 residents, so seasonality is taken out and the two areas are on the same scale despite their different sizes.

Blaby Leicester
40801201600Covid lockdown69 Blaby123 Leicester20122014201620182020202220242026
A line breaks wherever the twelve months behind it include a return the force never filed, because a twelve-month total missing three of its months is not a total.

Questions

Is Blaby safer than Leicester?

Blaby records less crime for its size than Leicester: 68.8 offences per 1,000 residents in the 12 months to June 2026, against 122.5. That is about 78% more. Both figures are averages across a whole local authority, and neither area is uniform: the gap between neighbourhoods inside one of these places is usually wider than the gap between the two of them.

What does this comparison not tell you?

Recorded crime counts what the police wrote down, so a place where people report more looks worse than a place where they report less, whatever actually happened. Both figures are averages across a whole local authority: a town with one busy centre and quiet suburbs carries a rate that describes neither. And the denominator is residents, so somewhere that fills up with commuters, students or shoppers by day records crime against a population it is not credited with. How the figures work sets all of this out.

Where else can I compare?

Pick any other two areas, or start from Blaby or Leicester and use the neighbouring areas listed on each. The ranked lists of the safest places and the highest crime rates cover all of them at once.

Figures cover the 12 months to June 2026. Police data is published roughly two months in arrears.